A MODEL FOR CHLORINE CONCENTRATION DECAY IN PIPES

A model that accounts for transport in the axial direction by convection and in the radial direction by diffusion and that incorporates first order decay kinetics has been developed to predict the chlorine concentration in a pipe in a distribution system. A generalized expression for chlorine consumption at the pipe wall is used to solve the governing equation and to determine the average chlorine concentration at any location in the pipe. Three non-dimensional parameters are used to determine the concentration and a methodology to determine them in pipe networks is proposed. The range of values of these dimensionless parameters where wall consumption is significant are determined. The methodology is applied to field measurements of chlorine concentration in a distribution network.